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As we gather in this year’s grape harvest, we are also celebrating our most recent awards successes.
The Food Drink Devon awards
Starting close to home, the 11th Food Drink Devon awards celebrates the very best Devon has to offer and champions the county’s artisan food and drink producers and establishments.
At this year’s awards, we were delighted to take home Gold for our Lyme Bay Shoreline 2021, a well-balanced wine made from Bacchus, Reichensteiner, Seyval Blanc, Solaris, Ortega and Pinot Noir grapes giving it a crisp acidity and complex layers. Its palate of lemon and lime with a background of nettle herbaceous notes makes it an excellent match for seafood dishes.
On a spicier note, we also won Silver for our classic Lyme Bay Ginger Wine. A sweet, heart-warming wine bursting with smooth ginger and carrying a kick, it is a great dessert wine and a perfect accompaniment to cheeses.
IWSC, IWC and Decanter World Wine Awards
We are also proud to have achieved incredible success in all three of this year’s global wine competitions, with a host of medals for our English still wines.
Our Lyme Bay Pinot Noir 2020 is the only English still red wine to win a Trophy in the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) as well as a Gold Medal in both the IWSC and the 2022 International Wine Challenge (IWC). It also gained a Silver Medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) 2022.
All three of these competitions are very well-established and respected. The IWSC is a global wine and spirits community with a mission to discover and champion the best wine and spirits from around the world. In its 39th year, the IWC is accepted as one of the world’s most impartial and influential annual wine competitions, with each IWC medal-winning wine tasted on at least three separate occasions by a minimum of two panels of judges tasting together, and then by two co-chairs to verify the panel results. And in its 20th year, DWWA is also rigorously judged by top wine experts from around the globe.
Made from the best fruit available in the UK and aged in 30% new oak, our unique Pinot Noir 2020 English red wine displays a complex and intense array of black cherries, raspberries and bramble fruit, underpinned by subtle toasty oak.
But it wasn’t only our Pinot Noir 2020 that achieved international success – our Lyme Bay Chardonnay 2020 won two Silver Medals in both the IWC and DWWA awards.
An elegant English dry white wine combining notes of creamy apples and stone fruit with subtle creaminess of oak, our 2020 Chardonnay has a crisp and complex framework that makes it an excellent match with food, as well as the structure to support extended ageing.
WineGB Awards
Our Pinot Noir 2020 made another great showing at the WineGB Awards taking a Silver, alongside a Silver for our Sparkling Rosé NV.
Organised and run by WineGB and co-chaired by leading wine experts Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke OBE, the aim of these awards is to highlight the quality, consistency and variety of English and Welsh wines.
Made from whole bunch pressed 100% Pinot Noir grapes with a small amount of maceration for the touch of pink colour, our classy fruit-driven Lyme Bay Sparkling Rose NV is a vibrant soft pink with steady fine bubbles and a nose of wild strawberries, pepper and redcurrant.
“It is a huge honour and privilege for our wines to be recognised in these prestigious competitions”, says Lyme Bay Winemaker Sarah Massey, “especially since they are judged so rigorously and hold all entrants to the highest standards.”
Taste of the West Awards
Ever mindful that it’s not only the quality of our wines that is on show, we were also chuffed to bits to win a Gold Medal for our Cellar Door in the Specialist Retailer Category at the Taste of the West Awards 2022, the largest regional awards programme in the UK.
“Our Cellar Door is an established Devon stop-off to purchase locally produced quality wines whether you’re looking for something a little bit special or your everyday favourites”, says Lyme Bay MD & Head Winemaker James Lambert. “Alongside this award, I am also incredibly proud of the entire team at the Winery, as well as our growing partners for Lyme Bay Wines. As our latest batch of awards show, their hard work has paid off and we are excited to be amongst the pioneers demonstrating what is capable for English wines.”
Visit the Cellar Door or order online
If you’d like to see for yourself, we welcome visitors to our Cellar Door here in Shute, near Axminster in Devon, and we’re open every day. Alternatively, you can always get in touch with our friendly team here at the Winery via email at [email protected] or by calling us on 01297 551355 if you’d like to order by phone – with free delivery for all orders over £55, and a 5% discount on all orders over £150.
And don’t forget to follow Lyme Bay on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for updates, offers and giveaways.
